


Skye Can't Keep Her Hands Off Ward

by orphan_account



Series: 12 Days of Ficlets [11]
Category: AOS - Fandom, Agents of SHIELD - Fandom, MCU, Marvel
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, OF, little bit, skyeward angst, skyeward fluff, this is exactly how I want Skye's powers to manifest, ward's first mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-05 00:26:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3098168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ward is back on the team, and he gets seriously injured during their first mission. Skye freaks out and then realizes that maybe that means she isn't as over Ward as she thought she was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skye Can't Keep Her Hands Off Ward

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my 12 Days of Ficlets over on tumblr (my URL is i-am-superwhomarvellocked) and prompted by an anon who wanted a skyeward ficlet about Ward's first mission back on the team. I did not expect this to go where it went.

Skye wanted to kill Coulson.  
The team couldn't enjoy a nice, calm Christmas. No, they had to go and capture a HYDRA agent from a bunker to pump him for information about Whitehall with Grant Ward's help instead of drinking eggnog by the fire and opening presents.  
Not, Skye reflected as she swung at one of the agent's bodyguards, that she'd ever had a Christmas like that. She'd just seen it in cheesy commercials around the holiday season while working for the Rising Tide. Their Christmas style was more "here's a present that I bought for you. It's a flash drive. Use it to steal some information from the government."  
Ward called her name and tossed her a pistol, which she shot without hesitation at the bodyguard. Hey, if she couldn't have Coulson, she'd take a bad guy. He fell to the floor, and Ward flinched.  
And that was another thing. Ward had shown up covered in blood and looking like he'd just come out of a week-long coma spent in a dumpster at the helicarrier when they stopped to refuel at a safe house. Coulson had been the only one to defend him. The remainder of the team, Skye included, had knives, guns, and other murder instruments at the ready. But what Coulson said went, and Ward had helped them out on the mission. More than she'd expected, really, and it brought back feelings that she'd thought she'd managed to bury a long time ago.  
Mac pulled the pin on a grenade and tossed it in the direction of the last bodyguard. May was locked in combat with the HYDRA agent, but she was holding back in order to capture him alive, and Skye was moving toward her to help when she heard a scream.  
She turned back because she knew that scream -- it was Ward's. He was lying crumpled on the floor next to the bits of the last bodyguard, and she rushed over because Ward never admitted pain. Ever. If he screamed -- she didn't want to think about how bad it might be.  
"Ward?" she said softly. When he didn't reply, she tore open his shirt and groaned, then looked around the room frantically for anything that might be able to staunch the steady flow of blood from the multiple wounds on his chest. Nada. May was still fighting the agent (although Mac was helping out, so that should be over in a few seconds) and Coulson and FitzSimmons were back at the helicarrier. She breathed deeply and pressed her hands to Ward's chest, doing her best to ignore the blood that soaked her instantly. Skye swallowed and felt something tingle in the pit of her stomach as she tried to calm down. Ward would be fine. And if he wasn't, no great loss, right?  
Behind her, May and Mac finished up with zip-tying the agent and knelt beside her.  
"Damage?" May asked briskly.  
Skye took her hands away, although she desperately didn't want to, and tried to imitate May's efficient tone as she said, "Multiple shrapnel wounds -- possibly fatal. Blood loss, apparent concussion."  
May ran practiced hands over Ward's body, searching for critical wounds and assessing the extent of his injures. Skye sat back on her heels, breathing hard, as she watched May work. She would trust May with anyone's life -- and, she reminded herself, Ward's life wasn't important.  
May pulled away from Ward and said, "The most important thing for us to do is to get him back to the helicarrier and get him conscious. We'll take it from there, but he seems like he's sustained only minor injuries." She glanced at Skye and her jaw tightened. "Skye."  
"What?" Skye asked. Somewhere in the back of her mind, behind worries about the mission and Ward and being soaked in blood and all, she wondered if she had something stuck in her teeth.  
"Look at your hand," May answered tersely. Skye stretched out a trembling hand and saw that she was glowing.  
In hindsight, the whole human flashlight thing hadn't been that bad. But in that moment, Skye was just the slightest bit terrified out of her mind. Up to that point, her powers hadn't manifested at all. It had just been a desperate rush to get out of the cave with the team and get back to the helicarrier, where Coulson had run a battery of tests before giving up and telling her that, just like they'd had to wait to see how the GH.325 serum would affect him, they would just have to be patient.  
Clearly, the whole waiting thing was over. The pain in Skye's stomach increased exponentially, and she let out a short grunt, then saw that her veins now looked more like etched gold, and her skin resembled a thin lampshade with a 80-watt bulb under it more than human tissue.  
"Close your eyes and turn away," she said to the rest of the team. Trip looked like he was about to protest, but she cut him off with an abrupt, "Do it." Skye had no idea what was going to happen, but she didn't want the team injured in any way.  
Something told her to put her hands on Ward, and she didn't question it as she did so through the haze of pain clouding her vision. Skye suddenly realized that she would endure all of the agony, go anywhere, do anything, to save the man in front of her.  
All at once, the pain dissipated, and Skye began to breathe more easily. The pipe dream that everything would turn out okay and Ward would be all right and they'd go live in the country together with a dog shattered suddenly as Ward began writhing and howling in torment. His head scraped against the concrete floor, and Skye grabbed him and cradled him in her lap. Blood began pouring even more rapidly out of the shrapnel wounds and his screams went high-pitched as Skye held onto him desperately.  
Her world began cracking at the edges. The team's faces blurred as Skye's eyes welled up. One thing. She'd allowed herself to believe that she could maybe have one thing, and that idea had been destroyed once. Now it was going to happen again.  
Ward shook in a final convulsion, arching off of Skye, and then collapsed back onto her, eyes still closed. Skye stared down at him mutely, tears still falling, and May pulled him from her arms gently.  
"No sign of any wounds. No concussion, pulse steady, breathing regular," she said softly. "Skye? It's going to be all right." May took off her leather jacket and draped it around Skye's shoulders, then pulled her up. "Time to go."  
Now standing, Skye said dizzily, "I've got him," and picked up Ward while May canvassed the area and grabbed the HYDRA agent.  
"You sure?" May asked, and Skye nodded. May left it at that and led the way out of the bunker and into the van. She urged everyone inside and opened the glove compartment in the front seat. Skye, still in shock, focused on the feeling of May's jacket and avoided thinking about Ward or her powers or how she was able to carry Ward like he was a Lego brick instead of a fully grown man.  
May twisted in her chair and offered a pill to Skye. "Skye, this is a sedative. I need you to-"  
"Take it to insure the safety of the team. I know." She didn't hesitate before gulping down the pill and falling back against the headrest of her seat. 

The next time Skye opened her eyes, she was in a cot hooked up to an IV with Ward beside her. "Hospital buddies again?" she cracked, avoiding his eyes.  
"Skye." She turned to look at Ward, who gazed back solemnly. "They told me what you did back there. Why did you save me? You could've let me die -- no one would have blamed you. Least of all me." He looked down.  
"I am not doing the drama thing with you, Ward," Skye said, switching into defensive mode. "I saved you, and now it's over." She tried to roll over in the cot before remembering that, oh right, she was too weak to move properly. She settled for turning her head to the side.  
"Just tell me if you still have feelings for me, Skye."  
Skye sighed and gave in. "Fine, I still fucking love you, Ward. Happy?"  
She heard a sharp intake of breath from Ward's cot, and then silence for a while. Just before she nodded off again, she thought she heard him say quietly, "I love you too, Skye. And we're going to make this work somehow, because I can't bear losing you again."


End file.
